Karti Chidambaram says EdTech companies are worth more than MoE budget, engage in predatory marketing

Sivaganga MP Karti Chidambaram, on December 13, told the Union Ministry of Education that EdTech platforms are worth more than the entire educational budget of India and said that they end up auto-debiting amounts from aspiring candidates. He urged the Ministry to set up some sort of mechanism to monitor these companies which are worth billions of dollars. 

While speaking in the Lok Sabha, Karti Chidambaram said, "Today, there are online education companies which are worth billions of dollars, some of them are worth more than the entire educational budget of India." He added that the virtual education platforms engage in predatory marketing practices where they prey upon "the aspirational poorer people who want to give their children a better education, who want to supplement their education which they are not getting in government schools… they auto-debit their accounts.” 

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Questioning the quality of the courses offered on virtual educational platforms, the Congress MP pointed out that there was no vetting process in place to evaluate the courses offered in the first place. Chidambaram even went as far as to call EdTech companies the new-age "loan sharks". He said that the companies are thrusting various unevaluated courses on the unsuspecting people of India. He also alleged that the virtual platforms, that are gradually gaining popularity in the country, stifle the voices of social activists who highlight their problematic aspects.